Expert: Andre Hickman - 8/15/2011

Question
Hi there!

I need your advice about animation. I want to become an animator someday and I want to practice my skills, although I'm still a junior in high school. I want to be able to know how to do the basics as early as now.

Sorry for my ranting :(

Anyway, do you have any program that will help me in the basics of 2D animation? I guess I don't want to start with movie maker.. I want to be able to do some simple animation like some of those anime parody's on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTEI1ramiqY&feature=related

This is kind of an example of the video I want to make. That's animation right? I'm sorry for being an amateur..

Please help me!

Thank you! xD

Answer
Most professionals are using Adobe software, like After Effects, Flash, Photoshop and the like.  These are pretty expensive programs though.

You need to look into Anime Studio (http://anime.smithmicro.com/)  It's not free, but the beginner version is only $49, which may be the investment that you need to make instead of the next new playstation, wii, or pc game...unless it's Battlefield 3 on pc...then you are excused ;# because I'm getting that one!

There is a free program called Gimp #www.gimp.org) that is very similar in function to Adobe Photoshop. It also has various addons like Paint studio and animation packages, to enhance the programs functionality.  you can find tons of tutorials on either program by doing a simple search in a search engine like google. searching things like "beginner tutorials for anime studio" or "how to create animation in gimp" will turn up tons of resources!

For you, a really believe that Anime Studio is the way to start.  If you can, invest in yourself. Invest in your dream, and bring it to life!

Cheers,
Andre